Abstract
Abstract. Over the last 2 decades, the importance of emissions source types of atmospheric pollutants in urban areas has undergone significant change. In particular, there has been a considerable reduction in emissions associated with road vehicles. Understanding the role played by different source sectors is important if effective air pollution control is to be achieved. Current atmospheric measurements are made at fixed monitoring sites, most of which do not include the measurement of volatile organic compounds (VOCs), so our understanding of the temporal and spatial variation of pollutants is limited. Here we describe the application of a mobile laboratory using a selected-ion flow-tube mass spectrometer (SIFT-MS) and other trace gas instrumentation to provide on-road, high-spatial- and temporal-resolution measurements of CO2, CH4, VOCs and other trace gases. We then illustrate the potential of this platform for developing source characterisation methods that account for the similarity in correlation between species. Finally, we consider the benefits of high-spatial- and temporal-resolution measurements in characterising different types of sources, which would be difficult or impossible for single-species studies.
Highlights
Air pollution in many urban areas is a major problem due to a myriad of emissions sources and dense populations, leading to increased potential for human exposure
The selected-ion flow-tube mass spectrometer (SIFT-MS) has been used to perform high temporal and spatial measurements of multiple volatile organic compounds (VOCs) in an urban area, and we present some examples of this
The spatial mapping examples highlight the use of the SIFT-MS to reveal hotspots of pollutants that can be investigated by further measurements in that area or through analysis, which helps to reveal emissions sources
Summary
Air pollution in many urban areas is a major problem due to a myriad of emissions sources and dense populations, leading to increased potential for human exposure. The utilisation of multiple reagent ions allows for measurements of VOCs and trace gases across a wide range of applications such as breath analysis (Španel and Smith, 2008; Castada and Barringer, 2019), analysis of emissions from consumer products (Langford et al, 2019; Yeoman et al, 2020) and ambient air quality measurements (Prince et al, 2010; Crilley et al, 2019) These studies present successful measurements of a wide range of VOCs and atmospheric trace gases, showing that SIFT-MS is suitable for measurements in urban areas. We discuss source characterisation methods that account for the similarity in correlation between species and development of new methods that will provide further insight into emissions sources in urban areas
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